Sleep Issues - sportsI think broadly you can divide sleep into three categories: first is that athletes because of their long seasons, their night games and their travel, they often don't get enough sleep so they may be sleep deprived. So the first issue is not getting enough sleep on a regular basis, and as the season progresses, their sleep tends to accumulate. The second thing is that because they often travel, and they cross time zones for competition, they can get jet-lagged. Chronic jet lag and the effects of jet lag on performance and health is the second issue. Third, is that athletes, may have difficulty winding down, they may have insomnia, they may have specific sleep disorders. And that I would say that's the main category.

Sleep Disorders - sportsmenThe three main sleep disorders would be sleep apnea, insomnia, or poor sleep and circadian rhythm disorders. So, sleep apnea is a disorder in which your throat closes up on you when you're trying to breathe at night, you may stop breathing, you may do this multiple times at night. Due to this, you sleep poorly and so you're less awake the next day but also it has cardiovascular effects. It can increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, hypertension, etc. Now, there are some sports, in which, having a large neck size, large shoulders, is an advantage like rugby players, wrestlers, football players have a higher chance of having sleep apnea. In addition to this, people with small jaws can also have sleep apnea.

So when it comes to sleep apnea, typically athletes may not present like the general population, there may be vague complaints of tiredness snoring, morning, headache, dry mouth, and all those complaints shouldn't be a sign to the team doctor that this person needs a sleep consultation. The correct way to diagnose and treat sleep apnea is to do a sleep study in which we find out if they have sleep apnea then, based on whatever the results the treatment is given.

The second large category is insomnia or problem sleeping. Athletes have multiple reasons why they would have difficulty winding down so we know that athletes have difficulty sleeping before a competition because the worry about the competition itself keeps them awake. Then, after the competition, their body temperature is high, the cortisol levels are high, they may be in pain, they may be anxious or, excited about how the competition actually went all this will make it more difficult for them to fall asleep.Often times athletes will drink caffeine, because that's a stimulant and it helps performance enhancements, in present many of the energy drinks that they drink just before the competition is still in their system when they're trying to fall asleep later. And that can make it more difficult for them to fall asleep. The hyper-arousal that is associated with being a good athlete may prevent sleep.

You know the typical way that this would be diagnosed is, if an athlete talked about this to their team doctor, and then after consultation they will find out, they have an insomnia disorder. Typically, the way we treat insomnia is either with medication or with something called CBTI, which is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia. The problem is that once the season has begun. There really isn't much time during the season for the athletes to address this. If you know that you have a sleep disorder, the best time to address it is postseason because now you have time to take care of your health.

The third main category would be circadian rhythm disorders. So, oftentimes athletes have to train at a certain time, and the time is decided by that team that may be misaligned to their own biological clock. And if there's a misalignment, they may have difficulty both initiating or maintaining sleep. So that's just something to keep in mind that, again, we need addressing by a trained sleep physician.

The first reason that athletes need good amount of sleep, is because you need sleep for a for quick reaction time for adequate sleep. If instead of getting 8 hours in bed you get 6 hours in bed, your sleep, your reaction time, which is normally about a quarter of a second, either doubles or triples. Now that may not make much of a difference to say you and I, but when we're talking here it can make all the difference. When you're competing at a national level, the right reaction time is everything.

The other thing is that cumulative sleep loss results in cumulative detriments to your sleep, your speed, as well as your accuracy. So, it's not just getting good enough sleep before the game, but actually getting good sleep on a regular basis because the deficit will accumulate. The second thing is that you need sleep to play an intelligent game.

When you're sleep deprived your prefrontal cortex, which is that part of the brain that is responsible for quick decision making gets less blood supply, while your emotional brain becomes overactive. This may impair your decision making and performance.

The third reason why you need enough sleep is because the chances of getting injured, increases. So think about what we just talked about. If your mean speed, accuracy is reduced and if you're making bad decisions, then the chances of you getting injured are more, you know you're more likely to put yourself into positions, you're more likely to land in such a way that you are likely to get more injured. Once you're injured you need sleep for muscle recovery. Growth hormone which is essential for muscle recovery is secreted only during your deep sleep, then not in testosterone which is really important for muscle strength, and vigour. The other reason why you need enough sleep is because, lack of sleep, will impair the way you utilize glucose. Professional athletes can spend a lot of money on getting the right nutrition, sleep, and practice, you know they're the three pillars of health and performance. So you want to make sure you get adequate sleep.

We did a study at Henry Ford Sleep Disorder centre that looks at the impairments in performance which you get from drinking alcohol and compare it to the impairment that you get from getting sleep deprived. We found getting six hours of sleep is equivalent to drinking two to three beers on the performance test. Sleep - impacting sports performanceImportance and misinformation about sleep needs to be tackled by education so you need to explain to them that you really need more sleep to perform better. Our cells have biological clocks that keep time in a 24 hour period which is synchronized to the environment by exposure to light and dark. So when any of us takes a jet, and we get to a new time zone, our biological clock is scrambling to get synchronized to the new environment. They can often be jet-lagged and not perform well.

It is absolutely not a fair competition and there is a lot of data to support it. So you want to help plan it in such a way so that you can minimize the effect of jetlag, not just on their mood or their sleep but on their performance as well. They can feel fresh the next day while they're performing

Sponsored Stories

Subscribe to our Newsletters

When the blood reaches these curves, it makes changes to its fluid mechanics and interactions with the vessel wall. In a healthy person, these changes are in harmony with the tortuous microenvironment, but when diseased, these environments could lead to very complex flow conditions that activate proteins and cells that eventually lead to blood clots.